Blacklight: Tango Down

To head into the first person shooter multiplayer business right now is hardly the easiest thing to do. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 already going head to head on Xbox Live, trying to add another game into the mix is a pretty gutsy move. Especially when we're dealing with a downloadable XBLA game without the big budget marketing that those two had available.

But that's exactly what Ignition has done with Blacklight: Tango Down. While it has a single player mode, called Black Ops, it's more or less all about the multiplayer. And it's hardly a very unique multiplayer at that - it feels a lot like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and even uses a similar ranking up system. With that it throws itself straight into the jaws of Infinity Ward's monster game, which is both good and bad for it.

While I'm personally no longer a big fan of Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer, these days favoring the bigger maps and vehicles in Bad Company 2, the fact of the matter is that it's still a good game (despite all exploits and ranking issues it's had). And borrowing heavily from it, Blacklight: Tango Down has a pretty solid foundation to stand on. It just doesn't feel unique enough. While the setting and tone is different, it's hard to see it stealing any players from Modern Warfare 2.

Despite that, Blacklight: Tango Down can be a lot of fun. The maps are tight and intense, and the respawn timer is short enough to get you back into the action fast. While I've ended up being spawn camped (i.e. another player sitting right at the spawn point, picking me off as soon as I step out of the safe zone), I chalk that up to the lacking sportsmanship of certain Xbox Live-players more than bad level design. In fact, some of the maps in Blacklight are really cool and you'll be rewarded for jumping between platforms and finding new routes to pick off that annoying sniper that's been bugging you for the last five minutes.

The futuristic setting is quite nice as well, with the more interesting weaponry that comes with it - including grenades that will make your opponent suffer from a blue screen while you pick him or her off. The weapon customization is fun to play around with, finding various scopes and attachments to add your favorite type of weapon - not that it matters much, because you're able to die pretty quickly from whatever gun your opponent has anyway. But it's nice to be able to put together a weapon that I feel comfortable with.

It should be said that a game doesn't become better just because it's cheap. Blacklight: Tango Down will set you back 1200 points, which is impressively cheap for what you actually get here. For the cost of a map pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 you get a brand new game, which is quite impressive. At the same time, if you're a fan of the genre and this type of combat you're probably playing Modern Warfare 2 already, and the chance that anyone would pick this instead of whatever new DLC Activision is offering is pretty slim.

It's sad in a way, because seeing a first person shooter of this quality being offered on XBLA is cool. If you really want a new game, either being tired of Modern Warfare 2 or just wanting to find out if you like the genre, do check it out. Its problem is mainly that it isn't innovative enough, or comes with any hook that makes it stand out from the crowd. Also, buying smaller multiplayer titles like this also comes with the added risk that we don't know how many will be playing it a few months from now - the single player maps (that can be played with up to three friends) are hardly enough to carry the title very far.